Introduction

Introduction to the 13 part series, A Biblical Perspective on Health

What is the importance of religion, the Christian faith, in particular, to health or anything else for that matter? The sun rises on the faithful and the unfaithful. People eat their breakfast and go about their day. On this level, an outsider may observe little effect caused by a person's belief system.

But looking at the character of the people (individually and as a whole) and what they are trying to accomplish, and how they are trying to accomplish these goals, is very much affected by the belief system of who they are, to whom they belong, and why they are here. The competitive evolutionary model, "survival of the fittest", creates a very different environment compared to that of the Christian cooperative model of Eden and Christ.

The Bible tells us there are 3 causes of disease:

· Our poor choices

· The poor choices of others that flow over onto us

· Time and chance, (aka Living in a fallen world)

Genesis 3 tells us about all three.

Eden evokes an environment in which all of mankind’s needs were met effortlessly. Christ brings to mind peace in a slightly different form, a peace that passes all understanding, regardless of circumstance, Mankind did not see the true value of either of these and denied them.

We call the rejection of Eden the Fall, as mankind gave up oneness with God and fell from heaven on earth to a lower place. We call the rejection of Christ the crucifixion, as mankind again gave up oneness with God and chose to remain on earth instead of in heaven on earth.

All of Creation fell with Adam and Eve (Rom. 8:21-22). The outer world, identified as “good” at Creation, nevertheless was outside of Eden. Mankind had been given the task of bringing the outer world into the oneness of Eden. Instead, mankind became one with the world outside Eden.

After the Flood, the world again was less than it had been before. The world and mankind had a second fall to a yet lower level – man’s dominion of the world based on love that had been established in Eden now became the dominion of fear (Gen. 9:2).

And then we have Babel, mankind’s conscious desire to ascend and take God’s place. Here is another Fall. The descendants of Noah had been commanded to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1).

3Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bakethemthoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.4And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose topisin the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:3-4).

The people wanted to be unified in one place, seeking a heaven of their own creation, and making a name to rival the “I am.” Their unity was based on unity of mankind without God, something similar to the One World Order proposed in modern times. God stopped the building of the tower of Babel by confusing their language. Dispersed to the ends of the earth, they remained separated from God. They remained in rebellion.

We live in the world that we make, that others make around us, and that those before us have helped to create. Our health is very much subject to the choices that we make, to the choices that others make, and to the nature of the world into which we are born. As a race (there is only one), we have chosen something less than heaven and persist in remaining there.

“We” and “our” are communal terms. They speak of society as a whole. This society may be Adam and Eve, or the pre-Flood world, or Babel, or the people alive now.

We are part of each of these societies.

These stories are one story, and this story is our story. We, the society, including you and I, choose something other than Eden daily. We choose to remain in a place not made for us.

We are not in total control of our health. Yes, we can affect our health by the things we do and think. But our health is also affected by what others are doing and have done. We may think that we are in control, but there are limits. Control is an illusion, part of the original lie.

Eve made the choice to obey the serpent rather than God, and Adam followed. Mankind continually chose to follow a path different from what God had intended – the Flood, Babel, Sodom, and on through the books of history and the books of the prophets, through the Gospels and the Epistles.

You and I do this. When we say the hurtful thing. When we choose to win the argument. When we deny that someone is our neighbor. When we misuse our power.

There is the joke that says: “There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t.”

I used to think there were two kinds of people in the world.

Now I know that there is only one kind of people.

That is a fundamental principle.

To love others as ourselves may take on greater meaning from this perspective.

Perhaps this understanding will help each of us to be one in body, mind, and spirit, and help us communally to be one in body, mind, and spirit.

There is a classic conflict that has continued since the first rebellion. God, as Creator, set the boundaries for the existence of Creation. Created beings sought to create their own laws, rebelling against the reality established from the beginning of time.

What if our efforts for better health (and improvement of other social issues) were focused on working within the laws of Creation for resolution instead of working outside these laws?

"A Biblical Perspective on Health" is a walk through the Bible to learn about health, to see how we have been given good health from the beginning and how we have turned aside and lost that health. Most importantly, we will see how to restore what has been lost.

Key points that are the basis for this study:

There is a God who created everything, He made us in His image; we recognize that he is Lord, and we obey Him.

We have been given everything that we need for good health, that is, for physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

There is a spirit of rebellion, first seen in the Garden and best exemplified later by Babel/Babylon, that seeks to replace God with man.

Enjoy a walk through the Bible from this point of view. Click on the referenced Scripture to go to that chapter of the Bible so that you are able to put the quotation in context.